Portraits make the best canvas prints as they’re more engaging for the viewer. A beautiful photo of your children, parents or family member, when taken right, would make an excellent print on canvas. But how do you take great portrait shots?

Great portraits photos are natural and don’t look forced. If you push the issue and insist that your subject remains still and smiles on cue you’ll get a poor, obviously fake outcome. You need to relax your subject and make them forget that the camera is there, snapping them when they’re not even looking at the camera for example.

Then you’ll get a photo that represents and embodies them and their essence, rather than a forced image.

One thing that many professional photographers do is to orchestrate a moment when the subject thinks you are going to take a photo, and catch them unawares just before or just after. So tell them to smile, do a countdown and take the photo before they are ready, or when they are relaxing thinking you’ve finished.

Another trick is to genuinely make your subject smile by telling a joke, or by waving a toy around if you are photographing small children or babies. Catching them off guard is always the best way.